Middle East Kingdoms

Ancient Mesopotamia

Hurrian
Empire of Mitanni (Naharina / Hanigalbat)c.1500 - c.1330 BC

Centred
on eastern
Syria
and northern Mesopotamia,
geographically, the Hurrians
were situated amongst much better attested ancient peoples. The
Assyrians were immediately
to the east. To the north-west there were the
Hittites, to the west and
south-west were Syria,
Canaan and
Egypt, and
to the south lay
Babylonia. The
middle of the second millennium was a critical time in the history of the
region. An 'age of internationalism' flourished with large states reaching
out to each other for the first time. There were intensive contacts between
rulers, and the Hurrians played a significant role in transmitting both goods
and ideas back and forth among the great empires of the area and out into
the Mediterranean world.

Although the Hurrians became a dominant political force in their own right
in the region of Urkesh and, separately, in
Arrapha, their rise
to greatness seems to have been triggered around four hundred years after
their arrival by a new influx of settlers. Around 1600 BC an
Indo-Iranian people called the Mitanni established themselves amidst
the Hurrians as a warrior class. This warrior class was originally
Indo-European, and may have been part of the general Indo-Iranian
migration towards what are now
India
and Iran.

In fact the names of the Mitanni gods seem to exhibit more of an Indo-Aryan
inclination than an Indo-Iranian one. The reason is unclear, but it may be
the case that the Mitanni were part of an advanced wave of Indo-Aryan
migrants which entered India - and seemingly also headed west - shortly
before a larger Indo-Iranian migration followed them into Iran to obscure
the earlier migrations (the
Parsua amongst them).
Thieme's 1960 analysis of gods' names and functions that were known from
the Mitanni treaties of the fourteenth century BC showed that the chain
of gods that were invoked to protect the treaties corresponded to those
that were known from the Vedic hymns (Mitrá-Varuná, Indra-... Ashvina, and
Nasatya) and cannot be Indo-Iranian (the reconstruction of which would
give a quite different chain of names: *Mitrá-, *Asura, and *Vrtraghnas).

The two peoples - Hurrians and Mitanni - quickly coalesced into a feudal
state and, during the dark age of 1600-1500 BC, this came to dominate its
neighbours. Its capital of Washukkanni has never been positively identified
by modern scholars, but Tell al-Fakhariyeh in modern
Syria is the favoured
location. The pharaohs of Egypt corresponded with the Mitanni rulers of
the empire, calling it Naharina after the
Akkadian word for river,
and Syrian musicians at Ugarit
performed Hurrian compositions. The later Hurrian empire of Mitanni became
a world power a little before 1500 BC, but survived for less than three
hundred years. By the thirteenth century BC, the Hurrians had been blotted
out by the Hittites to the west and the Assyrians to the east, and they
ceased being significant participants in international affairs. Little of
their own writings survived, other than a treaty with the Hittites.

Dates here should be taken as approximate, as they are calculated against
the more concrete dates known for other kingdoms. No king lists exist for
Mitanni and its early history is a mystery. Its people have been linked by
some scholars to the 'Qutils', a group that has also been linked to the
Gutians of the previous
millennia, and to the modern-day Kurds.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Comments
on Indo-Iranians and Tokharians: a response to R Heine-Geldern, Marija
Gimbutas (American Anthropologist, 1964.66:893-898), from Mittani
Empire and the Question of Absolute Chronology: Some Archaeological
Considerations, Mirko Novák (published as part of The Synchronisation
of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC
III, Manfred Bietak & Ernst Czerny (Eds), Österreichische Akademie
der Wissenschaften Denkschrift Band XXXVII; Wien, 2007), from Aryan
Gods in the Mitanni Treaties, Paul Thieme (1960), from Historical
Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Haywood (Barnes
& Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie
Kuhrt (Volumes I & II, Routledge, 2000), from The Penguin Atlas of
Ancient History, Colon McEvedy (which misses the period 1600-1300 BC
but shows a Mitanni kingdom in 1300-1000 BC, by which time it had certainly
disappeared - Penguin Books, 1967, revised 2002), from Cultural Atlas of
Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File,
2000), from Ancient Iraq, Georges Roux (Penguin Books, 1992), from
The Hurrians, Gernot Wilhelm (Aris & Philips Warminster 1989),
from Naming Names: The 2004 Season of Excavations at Ancient Urkesh,
Giorgio & Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati (via the
Institute of Archaeology,
UCLA), and from A History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC,
Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007).)

c.1595 BC

The
Hittite
destruction of Alep and its sack of
Babylon
allows other states to emerge, most notably the Hurrian empire of Mitanni,
where the warring Hurrian tribes and city states become united under one
dynasty.
Many cities which previously formed small states of their own are incorporated into the new empire, including
Andarig,
Apum,
Carchemish, Nawar,
Qatna,
Qattara,
Razama,
Tuttul,
and Urkesh. Nothing is known about the earliest Mitanni kings.

c.1530 - 1500 BC

Parattarna I

Probably same as Barattarna, below.

c.1500 - 1490 BC

Kirta

Near legendary figure who shaped the empire.

c.1490 - 1470 BC

Shuttarna I

Son. Or ruled c.1560 BC?

1478 BC

Egypt begins to move into
Syria, on Mitanni's southern border, reaching
the Euphrates, building ships, and ravaging the banks all the way from
Carchemish to Emar, towns that belong to Mitanni.
Ugarit is taken, but the Egyptians
are unable to gain control of the Syrian interior. Mitanni apparently
controls Ishuwa during Shuttarna's reign.

c.1475 - 1392 BC

The Hurrians annexe the
Adasi Assyrians
following their breaking their vassalage to
Babylon and
enjoying several generations of independence. Now the son of the last
independent Adasi king is placed on the Assyrian throne under Mitanni
vassalage.

c.1470 - 1450 BC

Barattarna /
Baratama

Parshatatar

Named on a seal. May be the same king as Barattarna.

c.1470 - 1450 BC

Barattarna (or Parattarna according to a seal later to be
issued by his son which is sent to the king of
Arrapha) expands the
kingdom westwards to encompass Alep
(which they call Halab). There is a popular rebellion within Alep that may be
encouraged or orchestrated by Mitanni so that it can secure overlordship. If
so, it succeeds when the ruler of Alep, Ili Illima, is murdered and his son is
forced to flee. Mitanni also secures Idrimi of
Alalakh as a vassal while, to the
west, it conquers the state of
Kizzuwatna.

1453 BC

Tuthmosis III of
Egypt defeats Mitanni at the Battle of Megiddo, weakening the empire. The
state of Amurru and several other Mitanni subjects in southern
Syria are
lost. However, Arrapha in the east and
Terqa in the south become vassal states by c.1450 BC,
and Mitanni becomes involved in the
Hittite
succession war at around the same time.

Ishuwa is defeated by the
Hittite
king, Tudhaliya II (I), and then sides with Mitanni, probably for protection
against their more aggressive western neighbour. Tudhaliya is unable to
take Ishuwa, revealing the limits of Hittite power in this period, so he
successfully attacks
Kizzuwatna instead.
Whichever side is responsible for the outbreak of hostilities, the Ishuwans
respond by becoming more hostile to the Hittites in subsequent years as Mitanni
to the south seeks a strong alliance with Ishuwa against their common enemy.

1420 BC

The
empire stretches from the Mediterranean (including
Alalakh in northern
Syria), all the way to the northern Zagros Mountains (including Nuzi, Kurrukhanni, and
Arrapha (roughly corresponding to modern Kurdistan), and into western
Iran). The northern
boundary dividing Mitanni from the
Hittites
and the other Hurrian states is never fixed, with
Kizzuwatna and
Ishuwa
being used as buffer states between the two. The latter now becomes a vassal
of Mitanni after it is attacked by the Hittites. Also, friendly relations are finally
established between Tuthmose IV of
Egypt and Artatama I soon after this date.

c.1415 BC

Saushtatar
reduces
Assyria
and humiliates its inhabitants by sending the doors of the famous temple of Ashur back
to Washukkanni. Records of Assyrian rulers after this point become confused.

Sunassura of
Kizzuwatna is a contemporary of the
Hittite king, Tudhaliya II (I), and then his successor, Arnuwanda
I. Allegiance is shifted back to the Hittites in this period, as the
state becomes a battleground between them and Mitanni, but
Arnuwanda overruns and conquers the state, making Sunassura a vassal. At
about the same time, further to the south, an
apparent vassal king is allowed to rule in
Qatna.

The
Hittites
in Anatolia wrest control of the
Assyrians from Mitanni.
The period of Mitanni-dominated Assyrian vassal kings ends as the Assyrians gain more freedom under their new
overlords. The Hittites also appear to annexe the Mitanni capital itself to
their vassal state of
Kizzuwatna, if
only briefly.

c.1385 - 1380 BC

Artashumara

Son. Murdered by Uthi and replaced by his younger
brother.

c.1380 BC

Artashumara is murdered by Uthi, and the latter places his young brother,
Tushratta, on the throne, with himself acting as regent. Tushratta's brother,
Artatama II, sets up a rival kingship in the east of the state. initially
receiving support from the
Hittites.

Tushratta only manages to re-establish friendly relations with
Egypt
when he has Uthi and all his supporters executed. Later he marries his
daughter to Pharaoh Amenhotep III, and the two kings (and later Amenhotep's
son, Amenhotep IV) conduct a long and detailed correspondence, mostly on
commerce, Tushratta's desire for gold (to fight his civil war), and
marriage.

The cuneiform tablet inscribed with a letter from Tushratta,
king of Mitanni, to Pharaoh Amenhotep III, covers various
subjects such as the killing of the murderers of the Mitanni
king's brother and a fight against the Hittites

c.1380? - ? BC

Artatama II

Brother
of Tushratta. Rival
claimant. Based in the east.

c.1375 BC

The
Kaskans suffer the loss of
their grain to locusts so, in search of food, they join up with
Hayasa-Azzi,
Ishuwa, and the
Lukka, as well as
other
Hittite enemies. The devastation to the grain crops may also have been
suffered by others, making it not only easy to get them all to unite but
highly necessary, and the Hittites may be taken by surprise by the
sheer forcefulness of the attack.

It is possible that Ishuwa receives support, or at least encouragement,
from Tushratta of Mitanni to join the attack upon the Hittites. It would
certainly be in Tushratta's interest to do anything he can to weaken
potential Hittite support for his brother and rival. Recent Hittite
resurgence indeed does suffer a knock when their fort of Masat is burned
down, but then the capital, Hattusa, is itself attacked and burned. This
disaster personally weakens the position of the Hittite king but
seemingly does little to set back the Hittites themselves.

c.1360s BC

The Hurrians are
devastatingly defeated by the
Hittites in a shock reversal of
fortunes, also losing territory in
Syria to them and, now a Hittite vassal, the kingdom rapidly declines. A confused period develops with
rival claimants and short-lived rulers hastening the process of decline.

c.1350 BC

Tushratta is assassinated (possibly by Shuttarna III), sparking a fresh
dynastic struggle between his now exiled son and his nephew. The important
administrative centre of
Nuzi on the
edge of the kingdom is lost to the resurgent
Assyrians,
and it seems likely that
Arrapha is lost at
the same time.

c.1350 BC

Shuttarna III

Son. Gained
overall control.

Gaining overall control in Mitanni, Shuttarna shifts his allegiance to
Assyria.
The
Hittite
king, Suppiluliuma, is enraged by this and decides to support the exiled
Kili-Teshub, son of Tushratta. He provides Kili-Teshub with troops and
together they defeat Shuttarna. Kili-Teshub is placed on the throne of what
remains of Mitanni (the west of the state) under the name Shattiwaza, is
married off to one of the Hittite king's daughters, and becomes a vassal.
By the 1320s BC,
Syria falls under Hittite overlordship while the Assyrians dominate the
regions which previously formed eastern Mitanni. The territory of Ashtata
and the city of Carchemish are given to one of Suppiluliuma's sons.

By now,
the Mitanni warrior class has been totally absorbed into the
Hurrian populace, leaving little
trace of its existence, including its
Indo-Iranian language.

c.1320 - 1300 BC

Shattuara I

Son.

c.1300 - 1270 BC

The
now-independent
Assyrians
gradually take control of Mitanni (which they had always called Hanigalbat)
from a weakening
Hittite
regime, leaving a native dynasty in place as vassals. The remains of the
Mitanni state regularly resist, seeking help from the Hittites and the newly
arriving Aramaeans.

c.1300 - 1280 BC

Wasashatta

Son.

c.1280 - 1270 BC

Shattuara II

Son or nephew. May be
the same as Shattuara I.

c.1270 BC

Shattuara rebels against
Assyrian
overlordship, but his forces are crushed by Shalmaneser I. Hanigalbat
(eastern Mitanni) falls
totally under Assyrian control and part of the population is deported to
serve as cheap labour.

c.1270 - 1240 BC

Ili-ipada

Assyrian grand vizier who served as king of Hangilbat.

c.1240? BC

A second rebellion against
Assyrian
overlordship in the northern and western areas of Hangilbat leads
Tukulti-Ninurta I to annexe the entirety of northern
Syria east of the
Euphrates.

c.1200 BC

Following the general upheavals in the region at the end of the century,
centralised administration disappears completely. The Hurrians are absorbed into Assyrian and
later cultures and leave few traces of their own culture or language behind
them, although they can possibly be associated with the later
Armenians and Kurds.